With ongoing development in manufacturing technologies, hot-melting machines are now in widespread use in many industries. A hot-melting machine is configured for heating two or more workpieces affixed together by hot-melt adhesive in order to obtain a workpiece unit.
Referring to FIG. 6, a typical hot-melting machine 10 is shown. The hot-melting machine 10 includes a worktable 11 and a controller 12. The worktable 11 includes a raised support platform 13. A heater 14 and a cooler 15 are attached to the support platform 13. The heater 14 includes a first actuator 141, and a heating device 142 disposed at a bottom end of the first actuator 141. The cooler 15 includes a second actuator 151, and a cooling device 152 disposed at a bottom end of the second actuator 151. A guide rail 16 is disposed on the worktable 11 under the support platform 13. The worktable 11 further includes a carrier 17 and a driving mechanism 18. The driving mechanism 18 is configured for driving the carrier 17 to slide along the guide rail 16. The controller 12 is configured for controlling the heater 14, the cooler 15, and the driving mechanism 18 to move.
Referring also to FIG. 7, the cooling device 152 is substantially a rectangular plate. The cooling device 152 includes a protrusion 1521. A recessed cooling portion 1522 is formed in the protrusion 1521 according to a desired shape of a workpiece unit. A plurality of through vents 1523 are defined in a top of the cooling portion 1522. The through vents 1523 run through the cooling mold 152.
Referring also to FIG. 8, a hot-melting method using the hot-melting machine 10 includes the following steps. A workpiece is affixed to another workpiece by a hot-melt adhesive, thereby forming a workpiece unit. The workpiece unit is loaded on the carrier 17. The driving mechanism 18 drives the carrier 17 to move along the guide rail 16 under control of the controller 12 until the workpiece unit is aligned with the heater 14. The first actuator 141 drives the heating device 142 to move down toward the workpiece unit under control of the controller 12 until the heating device 142 abuts against the workpiece unit for heating. When a heating process for the workpiece unit is finished, the first actuator 141 drives the heating device 142 to move up and separate from the workpiece unit and return to its original position. The driving mechanism 18 drives the carrier 17 to move along the guide rail 16 until the workpiece unit is aligned with the cooler 15. The second actuator 151 drives the cooling device 152 to move down toward the workpiece unit under control of the controller 12 until the cooling device 152 abuts against the workpiece unit for cooling. Gas provided by a gas-compressor is pumped into the cooling device 152 via the through vents 1523 for cooling the workpiece unit. When a cooling process for the workpiece unit is finished, the second actuator 151 drives the cooling device 152 to move up and return to its original position. The driving mechanism 18 drives the carrier 17 to move back along the guide rail 16 to return to its original position. Finally, the workpiece unit is unloaded from the carrier 17.
In the above-described hot-melting method, the heater 14 and the cooler 15 do not run simultaneously. Therefore the efficiency of processing of workpiece units is limited.
Thus a new hot-melting method is desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings.